Thursday's Quicky: "No one cares" about William Tyrrell, life for Kogarah rapist, coronavirus cruise curse.

1. William Tyrrell investigator told to drop the investigation because “no one cares about that little kid”.

Former homicide detective Gary Jubelin has told a Sydney court freshly promoted homicide commander, Superintendent Scott Cook, made the comments upon seeing a picture of William Tyrrell displayed near his desk.

“No one cares about that little kid – get him off the books and get him to unsolved homicide,” Jubelin says Supt Cook told him in 2017 amid growing frustration regarding the length of the investigation.

The three-year-old went missing from Kendall on the New South Wales coast in 2014, and hasn’t been seen since.

A barrister representing the NSW Police Commissioner told the court Supt Cook "categorically" denied saying those words, while Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said he had "full confidence in the professionalism" of Supt Cook in a statement after the court was told of the comments.

Jubelin is facing charges he illegally recorded conversations he had with elderly Kendall resident Paul Savage, which the Crown alleges were not covered by surveillance warrants.

But the retired detective told the court he'd been assured by Deputy Commissioner David Hudson that he wouldn't be criminally charged over the recordings following an internal investigation.

"Don't worry, you won't be charged. There's no public interest in you being charged," Jubelin said Mr Hudson told him when he quit the force in 2019.

Jubelin says he made the recordings to protect himself in the event Mr Savage lodged a complaint or harmed himself.

"He's a volatile person. I'm pushing buttons. I'm poking him," he said of one of the occasions a recording was made.

"Everyone was aware I was going there to stir him up. I felt I needed to protect myself."

Jubelin also denied pressuring a then junior officer, Detective Senior Constable Greg Gallyot, to make one of the recordings on his behalf.

"It was a simple request. There wasn't any resistance to doing what I had asked."

The hearing has aired tensions that arose during the Tyrrell investigation, which Jubelin says was one of the most difficult he worked on during three decades on the homicide squad.

The challenges included a lack of forensic evidence and direct eye-witnesses, combined with limited staff resources and unreliable recording devices.

2. Kogarah dance studio rapist jailed for life with no parole.

Anthony Sampieri will spend the rest of his life behind bars after raping a seven-year-old girl in a terrifying attack inside a public toilet at a Sydney dance studio.

The girl was punched, bound and choked for almost an hour as the drug addict filmed the ordeal and threatened to kill her at Kogarah in November 2018.

Sampieri, who pleaded guilty to 10 charges related to the attack, was sentenced to life in jail with no non-parole period in the NSW District Court on Wednesday.

The rapist also admitted to charges related to 94 sexually explicit and harassing phone calls he made to women in the months before the attack.

The 56-year-old has liver cancer and has been given only a few years to live.

Sampieri - who was on parole at the time for an earlier rape in Wollongong - punched the seven-year-old before filming himself raping her while high on ice.

Acting Judge Paul Conlon in sentencing said the attack could "only be described as any parent's worst nightmare".

He said it would have been terrifying and the girl would have held "grave fears" for her life.

The judge described mechanic Nick Gilio as brave for confronting the knife-wielding Sampieri after he found the girl in the toilets.

He suffered several large cuts during the confrontation including a 14cm wound at the back of his head and cuts to his neck and abdomen.

3. The 'coronavirus cruise' remains quarantined while another cruise liner has been turned away by four countries.

Thanks to the "coronavirus cruise" all cruise liners have been getting a bad name, with the MS Westerdam rejected from multiple ports before being allowed to dock in Cambodia.

They were rejected from Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines and Japan - despite having no cases of Covid-19 on board.

Meanwhile on the actual coronavirus cruise, 40 more cases of the virus have been confirmed taking the number of sick to 175. At least 15 are Australian.

The ship remains off the coast of Japan, where it has been since February 3.

Tensions are starting to rise on board as disgruntled, bored and confined passengers head into their 11th day confined to their cabins.

They are being allowed on deck in shifts to get fresh air, but the Aussies on board have told the ABC the new cases are "scary" and "extremely concerning".

People on board have been unfurling signs over the side of the ship in recent days that read "lack of medicine" and "thank you media".

With AAP.

Feature image: AAP.